Nature, Catch It before it Catches You…

Welcome to this latest edition of Random Theatre – it’s been ever so long since our last episode, today I’ve chosen a charming passage that recalls all the old world charm and grace of a bygone era. Let’s begin, shall we;

“In the following autumn the woodcock were very plentiful, and as my gout had left me for a time, I dragged myself as far as the forest. I had already killed four or five of the long-billed birds, when I knocked over one which fell into a ditch full of branches, and I was obliged to get into it, in order to pick it up, and I found that it had fallen close to a dead, human body. Immediately the recollection of the mad woman struck me like a blow in the chest. Many other people had perhaps died in the wood during that disastrous year, but though I do not know why, I was sure, sure, I tell you, that I should see the head of that wretched maniac.

And suddenly I understood, I guessed everything. They had abandoned her on that mattress in the cold, deserted wood; and, faithful to her fixed idea, she had allowed herself to perish under that thick and light counterpane of snow, without moving either arms or legs – Then the wolves had devoured her, and the birds had built their nests with the wool from her torn bed, and I took charge of her bones….”

Annnnnd…. CUT!

Ok so, did not that tug upon thine heart-strings. Does not it scream romance and does it not also show an appreciation of nature sorely lacking in today’s materialistic, self-absorbed, and utterly preposterous excuse for worshipping our mother earth?

How many of you have stumbled across the decaying body of an old romance whilst you were out hunting small game? Not only seeing the body as it lay there still, upon the very mattress they had perished upon… But more than this, they had also been savaged by wolves and small woodland creatures. Again I say How many of you? Dare I say too too few of you….

And therein lies the problem – children need to get back to nature. They need the excitement and wondrous exuberance instilled only by the merest caress of the afternoon breeze through the trees and the scintillating discovery of the occasional cadaver.

I hope that in some small way I’ve opened your eyes to the possibilities and made you consider within the next fortnight having a picnic in your nearest wooded glen, you wouldn’t believe what you can find.

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This has been another episode of Random Theatre, I hope you enjoyed it.